Sunday, December 24, 2006

Life - Help with babysitting

I was reading Penelope Trunk's blog post on the difficulty of getting a good babysitter and I was thinking that here in Singapore, we are actually quite fortunate. Most of my friends who have kids are able to rely on their parents to help take of their kids while they pursue their careers as a dual income family is quite common. In the last couple of years I have attended my fair share of weddings, in 2004, I attended about 15 weddings! And now, the babies are coming and as such, conversations steer towards pregnancy and parenthood, with childcare being on top of most parents' minds. My mom helps my sister to take care of her 2 kids and she has been doing this for the past 10 years. My sister has recently shifted into the flat next to my Mom's and that makes things even easier. So I was thinking that when my turn comes, will I be able to get my Mom to help take care of the baby. Thankfully, my mother in law is a babysitter and she specialises in taking care of infants.... whew.

The issue here is that our parents' are getting on in their years and whether it is fair to get them to help out during their retirement years. We can always argue that it will provide them with an opportunity to interact with their grandchildren etc.. the debate continues. The optimal solution will be that my wife can take care of the baby full time and we can bring the baby to visit our parents often enough. Once again, life is seldom perfect and we often have to contend with the hand that we have been dealt.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the grandparents who have volunteered their time to help take care of their grandchildren... Kudos!